Tiagarra Aboriginal Culture Centre and Museum - Devonport
Direct Phone Number : (03) 6424 8250
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The Tiagarra Aboriginal Culture Centre and Museum is located in Devonport on Tasmania’s north coast. Devonport is an hour’s drive from Launceston (101 kilometres) and half an hour from Burnie (49 kilometres).
Tiagarra (a Tasmanian Aboriginal word meaning 'keep' or 'keeping place') is an interpretation centre for the history and present-day cultures and art of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The Centre is located on Mersey Bluff, a traditional Aboriginal sacred site on the Mersey River. It is one of the few Tasmanian sites where ancient Aboriginal rock carvings, (or petroglyphs) are still well preserved. A local schoolteacher discovered the petroglyphs in 1929, and over 200 engravings were subsequently found. Tiagarra was established at the site in 1976 in order to protect them.
Tiagarra’s buildings have been designed to resemble traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal dwellings of the northwest. The Museum features over 2,000 artefacts, incorporated into a number of exhibits depicting the lifestyle of the northwest coast’s original inhabitants. Large-scale murals by Tasmanian artist Max Angus are also inlcuded. Ten rock carvings are on public display, accessed via walking tracks leading from the Centre. Guided tours are available, and Tiagarra also has a gift shop offering locally made Aboriginal arts and crafts.